That's What Friends Are For
by pensandink
Summary: "But really. I'd always be glad to help you, Astrid." It's 2:12 in the morning, and Astrid just doesn't understand quadratic equations. -OR- the one where Hiccup comes over for a couple hours and ends up snoozing on his Algebra II book. [K Plus] [No pairings] [Oneshot]


_Disclaimer: I do not own the How to Train Your Dragon franchise._

Key: Astrid, _hiccup_

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Astrid stared at the paper. Her eyes prickled painfully, and she swiped a frustrated hand over them.

It was 2:12 in the morning. It wasn't past her usual bedtime, around 3:30, but she'd been at this for hours and still hadn't made a dent. She refused to admit it, but she was really, really tired.

Like drop-dead, kill me now tired.

She set her pencil down and sighed, knotting her fingers together and pushing her hands up as high as they could go in a spine-popping stretch. Astrid rolled her shoulders and picked up her iPhone, wondering if she should text somebody.

She scrolled through her very limited contact list. Mom and Dad were still asleep upstairs; Ruffnut and Tuffnut (whose real names were Rebecca and Thomas) couldn't care less; there was _no way _in Hel she was texting Snotlout (how did his number get in her phone anyways?) and she knew Fishlegs went to bed at 8:30 every night.

She paused, her thumb hovering over Hiccup's contact. She shrugged, rubbed her eyes again, and texted him.

Astrid: Hey.

_Hiccup: Whats up_

Astrid: My math homework isn't solving itself.

_Hiccup: Do u need help_

Astrid: No.

_Hiccup: Yes u do, ur just not admitting it_

_Hiccup: Hold on_

_Hiccup: Wait do u have the textbook_

Astrid: Yeah.

Astrid: What are you doing, Hiccup?

_Hiccup: Prolly something rlly stupid_

Astrid: Hiccup…

_Hiccup: Just hold on brb_

She didn't get any texts after that for a while. What Hiccup was doing she didn't know – _Prolly something rlly stupid. _

Probably something really stupid.

There were three gentle knocks on the door. Astrid stood up and stretched again, then peered out the peephole.

She scrambled back, startled. What was Hiccup doing here?

She rubbed her eyes and looked again. It was Hiccup, standing on the porch, a navy-and-green scarf wrapped around his face.

Astrid rolled her eyes. Of course. She opened the door and Hiccup slipped in.

"Hey, Astrid," he whispered. He tugged his boot off – the other leg was a prosthetic and therefore didn't need a boot – and sauntered further into the house.

She closed the door quietly behind him and made her way to the formal dining table, where they never ate dinner, and he sat down in one of the chairs.

He set down the books he was holding – Astrid hadn't noticed – and opened his Algebra II textbook.

He froze when she sat down next to him. "Um, what chapter did you say you were on?"

"I didn't. 5-5, by the way."

He bobbed his head twice and flipped to the right page. "Quadratic Equations, huh?"

Astrid rubbed her finger and thumb together the way she did when she was nervous or sheepish. "Yeah, it got me stuck."

He yawned and Astrid noticed how his hair was messed up and his eyes were are bleary. She immediately felt guilty. Had she woke him up?

He caught her looking and managed a tired smile. "Hey, it's no big deal."

"Yes, it is," Astrid said immediately, partially to gainsay what he'd said and partially because it _was_ a huge deal. "I woke you up, didn't I?"

"Yeah, maybe you did," he admitted. "But really. I'd always be glad to help you, Astrid."

He turned away, but not before Astrid noticed the flush reddening his face. She dismissed it, tiredness and confusion meddling her thoughts.

"Okay – what were you having trouble on?"

;;

They worked for another two hours, stopping once for a coffee break. Hiccup was insanely helpful – not only did he know his quadratic equations, he was surprisingly patient for pulling an all-nighter.

At 4:30-ish Astrid was satisfyingly _done_ with all of her homework – not just her math, but that irritating LA assignment that the teacher had assigned _yesterday_, and the homework for the Norse Mythology elective she was taking. The teacher, Gobber (who also supervised the Robotics team), didn't assign much homework, but it was _difficult_.

Hiccup slumped back in his chair. "So that's it."

"Yep," Astrid said, yawning for what seemed like the fifth time in the past hour. "That's it. We can go to sleep now."

"Yeah, okay," Hiccup said. "Sounds good… to… me…" and he fell asleep right there, his face laying on top of the opened Algebra book, and his peaceful face was the last thing she saw before she fell asleep, too.

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Astrid's mother was a morning person. She got up at six o'clock in the morning to go for an hour-long walk in the freezing cold. She'd dressed, strapped her iPhone to her arm, grabbed her earbuds and her house keys, and headed downstairs.

She'd expected a tidied dining room – like it usually was after Astrid was done – but she was greeted with two snoring kids and a pile of papers.

Wait, two?

Her only son had moved out, having attended NYU a couple years ago, and only came back around the holidays. It was most certainly _not_ December, so why was there another head snoozing on an Algebra II book?

Lightly stepping over to the dining table, she looked closer at the boy's face. It was Hayden Haddock – Val's son! And both her daughter and Hayden had their clothes on, so that was a plus. Val had certainly raised her son right.

Brunhilda smiled, stepped out of the house, and calmly dialed her best friend's number to let her know that her son was sleeping at her house.

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_FIN_

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_Two notes before all of you guys move on – _

_x. This is a combination of headcanons I have, one being that Hiccup's grammar while texting is absolutely despicable. (However, all of the first letters have been capitalized. Most iPhones [I can't speak for all of them] have an AutoCorrect function that automatically capitalizes the first letter of a text._

_x. The name of Astrid's mother, Brunhilda, is a tip of the hat to one of the greatest, if I do say so myself, fanfictions of the HTTYD fandom, _Becoming Lífþrasir_ by Foxy'sGirl – absolutely fantastic, by the way._

_And FIN for real, now._

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_EDIT:_

_Or not :)_

_As a reviewer helpfully pointed out to me, _Becoming_ belongs to Midoriko-Sama. Thanks, bedheadforeva._


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